Bernard Black: Wizard
by MadameDuPompadour
Summary: Bernard Black leaves the shop one day without warning, leaving Fran and Manny wondering where he's gone. As they board a strange train, are their companions simple madmen, or something more? Bernard Black as a wizard, cousin of Sirius, went to school with the marauders.
1. A note from the author

Dear Valued Reader,

Sorry if that sounded sarcastic, it wasn't meant to.  
Anyway, this is a Harry Potter/Black books crossover, written after reading one by someone else, who I would credit except I can't remember who it is. Lots of these crossovers have Bernard dropping out of Hogwarts, but I chose to have him there at the same time as Sirius because I wanted to.  
This mostly focuses on Manny and Fran, and views the world through their eyes.  
I also warn you: it's not very good. I'm aware of that, and don't need your reviews telling me that I haven't captured the voices right or anything, because I know that. Reviews about anything else are fine, just not about the voices. Because I know.  
But anyway, hope you enjoy!

Reinette xx


	2. Suspicion

Manny was startled when, at only eleven o'clock, Bernard ran through the shop and out the door without even shouting at him once. He ran to the door, and shouted "Bernard?" into an empty street, but he was gone. Confused, Manny went back into the shop, but was disturbed by a low hooting coming from a back room.

A brown owl stood on the kitchen sink, attempting to escape through a small gap that Bernard had made in the window last week. Afraid that it might hurt itself, Manny picked it up and took it into the bookshop. It's wing was bleeding slightly, presumably from the jagged glass it had tried to force itself through. Figuring it wasn't going to go anywhere very quickly, he went back into the kitchen and examined the sink, only to find a small piece of paper. It read:  
To Mr Bernard Black,

Mr Potter is very sad to inform you of the deaths of your cousin Bellatrix Lestrange, and of your first cousin once removed, Nymphadora Lupin. He also regrets to inform you that your cousin Sirius Black was killed two years ago.

He would like to invite you to the funeral of Mrs Lestrange and Mrs Lupin, which is being held at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry today at 7pm. He would also like to apologise for the delay in informing you of Mr Black's death, as he has only just discovered your relation.

The train will be leaving from Platform 9 ¾ at King's Cross at 12 pm today.

From, Barker and Kettleburn solicitors.

Manny called Fran, who came over immediately. She was fascinated by the letter.

"Did you know Bernard had family?"

"He had 'Ma'. He told me about her once. Apparently she was always very good at maths."

"Anything else?"  
Manny paused. "No, he never really talked about… anything really."  
"Weird names," Fran said, picking up the letter. "Sirius… Bellatrix… Nymphadora! What kind of a name is Nymphadora?"

"Isn't Sirius a star?" Asked Manny, picking up an astronomy book that Bernard had been using as a coaster. "Yeah, here it is. Sirius: brightest star in the sky. Bellatrix too! In the constellation of Orion."  
"They sound like hippies," Fran concluded. "Not Bernard's sort of people at all."  
"And what's-" Manny checked the letter, "Hogwarts?"

"Oh, I think Bernard's mentioned that. I think it was his old school."

"What, a 'school of witchcraft and wizardry'?" Manny laughed.

"Probably a joke. Maybe the cousins were really into fantasy books or something." Fran thought for a moment, before saying, "You know, I think that Bernard really needs our support today. Some important people in his life have died and he needs his best and closest friends with him to help him through this difficult time."

"You think there'll be an open bar, don't you?"  
"Yeah, let's go."

They went straight to King's Cross Station, and arrived just in time to see Bernard walking through the front doors. They ran inside, and saw him strolling towards platform 10. Fran looked up at the numbers. "Platform 9… Platform 10. Where's 9 ¾?" But when she looked back down, Bernard was nowhere to be seen.

"Great, now we've lost him!" Manny said angrily. They leant against the wall of platform 10 to consider their position, when two very oddly dressed people were walking towards them. It was a man and a woman, dressed in long, black robes. Behind them was a boy, about 15, wearing a suit.

"They might be going to the funeral! Don't move, just watch them."  
The three carried on walking purposefully forwards, right towards the wall they were leaning against! They didn't stop or slow down, but just continued until they seemed to melt into the wall itself. Just as this happened, the wall felt as though it disappeared, and Fran and Manny fell through into… what?

A large, red train stood below a sign that read '9 ¾' in a strange, old-fashioned style. People in strange clothes milled about, boarding the train or talking to other oddly-dressed people. The clock above them read 11:55, and they just saw the end of Bernard's long, black coat disappearing into the train. They attempted to follow him, but Fran was stopped by a nearby man wearing a pink cardigan and carrying a lime-green umbrella, who told her that "come on! You call that muggle clothing? You'd be spotted a mile away!" The man walked off, laughing and shaking his head.

As he left, Manny saw that they had lost Bernard. The train gave a whistle and people began to move onto the train, along with Fran and Manny. They decided to find Bernard when they arrived, rather than trying to make their way through a crowded train.

Inside, there weren't seats and handrails like they expected, instead they found lots of compartments, each of which appeared to contain somebody. They couldn't find Bernard, so went into the compartment with people who looked the least sad.

A blond man in long, orange robes was accompanied by a woman who wore an ordinary black dress, like something normally worn to a funeral.

"Do you mind if we sit in here?" Fran asked cautiously.

The blond man nodded, and gestured to two seats. Fran ended up next to the woman, and Manny, much to his displeasure, had to sit with the strange man. He held out his hand to Fran.

"We were just getting acquainted. My name is Xenophilius Lovegood. What's your's?"

"Fran, Fran Katzenjammer. And this is Manny."

"I'm Rachel Bell," the other woman said, sounding as nervous as Fran felt.

"And what connection do you have to the Battle of Hogwarts?" Xenophilius asked.

"Well, we-" Fran began, "We're just supporting a friend really. He lost some family in the - erm - battle."

Manny looked at Fran questioningly and Fran shrugged subtly.

"What about you?" Manny asked the man, finally finding his voice.

"My daughter was fighting with Harry Potter himself!" the man said proudly, "But I go also to mourn friends, and enemies, who were lost."  
"-right." Fran said, disconcerted. What was this battle? At a school? And they're holding the funeral there? What's going on?

"How about you?"  
"Oh, I'm just going to support my daughter. I'm a muggle, you see," Fran nodded as though she knew what the woman was talking about, "and my husband wanted to come, but he's away working for Gringott's at the moment."  
"Oh, right, that must be hard for you." Fran said, hopefully.

For the rest of the journey, Fran and Manny didn't talk much, just nodding occasionally when the strange man talked nonsense about magic and weird animals. Finally, it was time to get off the train.

"That took so long! We must be in somewhere like Scotland now!"

"And who are all these people?"  
"Maybe they're all mad or something. Maybe it's Bernard's family, and they're all bonkers."  
"That would certainly explain a loty. To them, Bernard's probably a really dull, normal guy."

They walked with the others to some carriages which stood. Empty. As soon as someone got on one, they began to move! Manny whistled. "Very high-tech for this sort of place."  
The carriages took them through a path lined with trees in the slowly dimming light, until they emerged to see a massive castle.

"Is that the school? Bernard got to go to school there?"  
"They say school, but it's probably some kind of mad-house."  
"Still…" Fran sat there, spellbound by the amazing view.

They alighted in a large field by a lake, where something like fifty coffins were laid out.

"Blimey!" Fran whispered to Manny, "How many people died?"

"Probably a fire, or someone went berserk."

Fran and Manny were more careful around the others after seeing that sombre sight, until they finally saw Bernard. He was wearing long black robes, like many of the other people here, and shaking hands with sad-looking people. Finally he saw them


	3. Revalation

"What are you doing here?" He asked. He looked terrified.

"We thought you needed support! We found the letter about the funeral." Fran said.

"Well there's no open bar so you can go home now, can't you?"  
"Where did you get that then?" Fran pointed to the glass of red liquid which looked like some kind of cocktail.

"Just - just over - look it doesn't matter! You can't be here!"

Bernard recomposed himself when a man with a camera walked over.

"Bernard! Bernard Black! I wasn't expecting to see you here, though you were living with muggles!"  
"Yes, well, hello Adrian."  
"So, what are you up to?" He asked excitedly.

"Oh, I run a bookshop."  
"Really, what-"  
"Oh, Adrian, I've just got to go and get my friends here some drinks, is that OK?"  
"OK," Adrian said, beaming, "Bye Bernard!"  
"Bye, arsehole," Bernard muttered under his breath. He walked off into the field, away from the large group of people, but Fran dragged him off towards the forest.

"No! Not in there!"  
"We need to know what's going on!"  
"OK, OK, but not in there."

Bernard paused, fiddling with the hem of his robes for a second, and prompting Fran to walk off towards the woods once more.

"No! Stop! OK," he said, relenting. "I'm - I'm a wizard."  
"No, really Bernard." Manny insisted.

"Really! This place, it's a wizard school. All that stuff happening earlier this year, the fog and the bridge, and… that was all wizards!"

"I don't-" Fran began, but Manny interrupted.

"Fran, come on! That explains everything that's happened today. Maybe the blond guy wasn't even mental." Bernard chuckled slightly at this.

"What, old Xeno? No, he's mental."

"Right, but how come you never said?"  
"International statues of secrets, or something like that. Basically we're not allowed."  
"But there was a woman on the train, a-"  
"Muggle" Fran helped.

"A muggle, and she wasn't a wizard, but she was going."  
"She probably married a wizard or something. Maybe her kid's one. I dunno, but some are allowed to know."  
"What about friends of wizards? Are they allowed to know?"  
"No. Doesn't work like that.

"So who are all these people who died?"  
"There was a battle." Said Bernard, becoming a bit more sombre. "Here, for the school. There was this evil wizard, you see, and he was trying to take over the wizarding world. But he was stopped, here, by this kid. Harry Potter his name is. So this guy's dead, but so are lots of other people."  
"Including your-"  
"Yeah. Sirius died a couple of years ago, fighting death eaters. They're his followers, by the way. I always liked Sirius. When I was at uni, we used to go out drinking all night, and see how many pubs we could get us banned from before the year ended. To this day I still can't go to half the pubs in Oxford and around. Bellatrix, my other cousin, was on their side. One of you-know-who's - the bad guy's most loyal followers. She actually killed Sirius."  
"She killed her own cousin?"  
"She was always a bit weird, never liked Sirius."  
"And what about the other one, the… Nymphy one."  
"Nymphadora? Only saw her once, when she was a baby. Apparently she's got a kid of her own now. Or did, anyway."  
"Poor kid."  
"Yeah. My cousin Andromeda's going to raise him. She was a good one too. Married a muggle, got her expelled from the family."  
"Your family cared about that, then?"  
"Yeah. I was expelled myself when I went to muggle university. My parents didn't care, but the extended family got a bit nasty."

"So you went to school here?"

"Yeah, Hogwarts. Great place. Really easy to smuggle in firewhisky." He held up his glass.

"It looks amazing." Fran breathed.

They returned to the funeral, and a moving ceremony was given, with speeches from people who everyone seemed to recognise. Afterwards, they entered the school, and sat on tables arranged in a large hall. Manny was captivated by the way the ceiling seemed to open onto the sky outside.

As everyone sat talking and sharing memories, a young man approached their table, which was strewn with bottles and glasses. He sat down, and turned to Bernard.

"Bernard Black?"  
"Yes? Who are you? What do you want?" He shouted.

"My name is Harry Potter. I would like to speak to you."  
"Well go on then."  
"Maybe, a little more privately?"  
"Listen, anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of my two… peoples."

"OK, well your cousin was very important to me, and he left Grimmauld Place to me, in the absence of any biological heirs. You, or course, have the right to claim it."  
"Grimmauld Place? Hated it. Horrible, smelly…"  
"OK, then, thank you. Also, we did find something in Grimmauld place labelled 'Bernard'. It was a box of very old books, would you like it?"  
"My books! Sirius gave me all these books and left them there, but then I was banned and…"  
"Should I give it to you tomorrow?"  
Bernard was still mumbling to himself, so Fran replied, "he would love you to."

Harry nodded, and began to try to speak again, but Manny interrupted him. "Maybe you should do this tomorrow," he said, gesturing towards an inebriated Bernard. Harry nodded, and went over to a small group of predominantly ginger people.

"Oi! Potter!" Bernard shouted suddenly and unexpectedly, causing the dark-haired figure to turn round, and return to the table. "Where's Remus? He should be here, with the…" he paused, "peoples."

Harry looked sad, before standing up and leading Bernard away to where the memorial list stood at the end of the room. Neither Fran nor Manny saw him again that day.


End file.
